12 years back, we attacked Iraq. This is what Baghdad looks like today.

March 24, 2015

Despite 12 years of war and conflict, despite all the bombings and kidnappings, despite the constant threat of ISIS, people in Baghdad are having fun and loving life.

They're holding hands and jumping feet-first into a canal...

...eating ice cream with friends on a hot night...

...and having dance parties in the middle of a busy street at rush hour.

For so many, it's been a terribly painful 12 years. Baghdad is still a dangerous city, and many, many people have lost friends and loved ones to the violence. It must be so tempting to just give up, shut yourself in your apartment, and never come out.

But life goes on. Because it has to.

Because you can't rewrite the past.

And no one knows what the future holds.

"I've had umpteen conversations with people in Baghdad about the bombs, and they say they don't worry about the bombs. Because they just are. They're just a fact of life. You know, your only hope is that if a bomb goes off, it's far enough away, or that it's close enough that you're gone quickly." — Martin Smith, "FRONTLINE"